


The Christmas Protocol

by misura



Category: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-21
Updated: 2012-12-21
Packaged: 2017-11-21 22:47:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/602930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"Any idea what we're doing here?"</i>
</p><p>
  <i>"Other than dancing?"</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Christmas Protocol

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Adariall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adariall/gifts).



The place looked glittery and ritzy and expensive. The kind of place where you might very well run into someone who thought that he was above the law simply because he'd got a lot of money and the sort of friends that came with having a lot of money.

"What's the mission?"

Not an ideal place for an extraction, although if you knew the ground and whatever protection detail someone'd got with him didn't, it'd still be doable. 

"Sorry, what?" Ethan looked the way he sounded: distracted.

Brandt spotted Jane, wearing a blue dress (different dress, same effect). "The mission. Who are we here for?" He wasn't wearing the lenses but then, he didn't really need them.

On the other hand, they were useful. Having access to extra information while on the scene was never not useful.

"I'll tell you later," Ethan said. "Just ... try to keep yourself entertained for now."

A slap on the shoulder and like that, Ethan was gone.

Brandt supposed that maybe he should have been used to this sort of thing by now, to not being told absolutely everything, to being kept in the dark on a don't-need-to-know basis.

Didn't mean he suddenly had to start _liking_ it, of course.

 

"Talk to me."

Jane smiled. Brandt knew she wasn't attracted to him, and he knew he wasn't attracted to her, either, so really, this was all very comfortable. Very safe. Very friendly.

It helped that she only stepped on his toes when he misplaced his feet. "How about that weather we've been having?"

"Funny." Brandt had had no reason to expect Ethan to have told Jane more than he'd told Brandt. Well, no reason aside from the fact that Ethan wasn't an idiot.

If forced to choose between going in half-cocked or not at all, nine times out of ten, Brandt suspected Ethan would take the first option. This hadn't gotten him killed yet because Ethan was rather good at making sure he rarely needed to face that particular choice. Brandt liked that about him.

"It's Christmas." 

Brandt hadn't really noticed. "So it is."

"The food here really is quite good."

"I'll have to try it."

"You should."

"Any idea what we're doing here?"

"Other than dancing?"

"Other than dancing."

"None."

He considered dipping her, but decided it would take a braver man. "All right then."

 

"Just that I should keep my eyes open," Benji said.

"Right," Brandt said. He might sound a bit annoyed.

Benji looked good in a tuxedo. Better in his usual clothes, which might be just as well. Brandt _definitely_ hadn't come here to think uncomfortable, unsafe and more-than-friendly thoughts.

"Don't know what for, though."

"Hm."

"I feel kind of like James Bond."

"James Bond." Suave and a real ladies' man? Cynical going on jaded and a bit rough around the edges?

Benji grinned and raised his drink. "All that's missing is a game of cards, a bit of gambling."

"Arm-candy," Brandt said. He couldn't imagine Benji possessing any kind of pokerface. Then again, at first glance, he didn't think many people would suspect Benji of being capable of killing someone.

"I got you, don't I?"

Brandt signaled a passing waiter and got himself a drink. "So you do."

 

"Guys are _so_ romantic."

"Hey. 'I got you' isn't that bad."

" 'Arm-candy'?"

"All right, 'arm-candy' is pretty bad."

"I told you my plan would work better."

"I've still got my secret weapon."

 

"Seen anything yet?" Ethan grinned a wide grin that made Brandt want to check his pockets.

"Any _thing_?" Benji frowned. "I thought we were here looking for a person."

"You," Brandt said. "You thought _you_ were here looking for a person. The rest of us didn't have a clue what we're doing here. Still don't, incidentally."

"Look up," Ethan said.

Brandt saw some decorations - greenery, possibly real, rather than plastic. No obvious cameras, although he'd noticed at least four while mingling, and two of them covered their current location.

"Mistletoe," Benji said, then glanced at Brandt and -

\- and that blush right there really told Brandt everything he might have been wondering about Benji's pokerface. "So?"

"It's traditional," Ethan said. He sounded downright gleeful. "To kiss."

"I'm not kissing you," Brandt said, without even thinking about it.

"Hey!" Benji said. "What's wrong with kissing Ethan? I mean, I'm not - he's - it's not - well, I'm just saying."

"Not me. Him. And don't worry about having hurt my feelings just now."

"Oh," Benji said. "That's - " _Pretty damn meddlesome of you_ , Brandt thought.

Then again, a gift horse was a gift horse. "You want me to?" Presumably, Benji did - Ethan wouldn't be doing this if he didn't, except that, well, Ethan wasn't infallible. 

"Do you want _me_ to - "

"Yes," Ethan said. "That was a yes. From both sides."

"This is what we're here for? _Mistletoe_?" It had to be; to interrupt a mission for something like this would have been extremely unprofessional.

"Could've just stayed at the loft for that," Benji said.

"Food's better here," Ethan said.

"Turn your back," Brandt said.

 

"Are they doing it?"

"Define 'it'?"

"You know what I mean."

"They're not taking their clothes off, if that's what you mean."

" _Jane_."

"I'm seeing some mouth-to-mouth movement, yes."

" 'Mouth-to-mouth movement'? And you complain about 'arm-candy'?"

"They're kissing. Happy?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"Double or nothing on getting them to take it to third base before next year?"


End file.
